The morning sun hit the kids’ holey socks. They now wipe off the the pens after refills.
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Xeruses xylographed xenogenetic xeranthemum xeriscapes.
The kids found my typewriter under my desk. I bought it for writing the text in my grad school portfolio.
She had fun and he loves banging those keys.
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Weepy weevils wailed wheezy whines of wiley weasels waylaying waltzing whales within woven woodbine webs.
The kids woke up and saw my sketchbook with pens on the desk. The flipped the page and made their mark.
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Taegan MacLean’s One Word substack is one of the best projects on the internet, and his latest video Woodbine is another great installment in this series. Check it out!
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Vibrant vultures vanished vulgar violet vampires via victorious vats of viscous vaporizing vegetable vinegar varnishes.
A lovely cool sunset after a weekend of heavy rains in the desert. The kids were drawing a highway for a rollypolly.
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The Liszt transcription of Beethoven’s Fifth, played by Glenn Gould.
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Uniformed unicorns uncovered uncouth unagi underwriters under unruly Union University.
The boy wanted to paint the Scarbunny Pokémon so I drew one for him on watercolor paper.
She wanted one too so I pulled out my rarely used light table, traced it, and let them loose with watercolors.
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Goodbye to Green
At the start of 2023 I got back into using fountain pens after a long hiatus after finishing Berkeley. The ink in my bottle of Waterman Green had dried out so I revived it with water.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to focus on finishing this bottle so I took it out of the dark storage box and left it on the desk.
Yesterday I realized there was a little white mold floating on the surface!
I’m most likely too cheap for my own good, but I refilled up a couple eyedroppers that already had this green in their barrels and pulled out a brush to burn through the rest. As you can see, the green had morphed to an interesting dark teal.
I suspect I got this bottle while still in high school, so it’s been with me for more than a quarter century. It’s now empty and washed.
Given my morning pages and sketches, I suspect this old buddy will be all gone in a week.
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Timid tarsiers triumphantly trapped ten tetradactyls, toppling their treacherous tyranny.
Last month, Hurricane Hillary slowly worked its way up from Mexico, prompting warning texts from from NOA. The boy kept asking about when the flood was going to hit. We explained that floods are bad events, but that couldn’t dampen his excitement.
Turned out to be a minor event. We got a little rain on Friday afternoon which led to a massive double rainbow during the golden hour.
We finally got our heavy rains and street flooding a week later — from a storm that had no name.
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Pen and Ink, James Hobbs, 2016
This is a great little survey of what’s possible with this medium. Hobbs picked a variety of artists and provided thoughtful commentary on each of his picks.
As I get deeper into sketching, this book is a definite keeper. It’s nice to have an overview of all the different approaches in a single volume. Seeing the multiplicity of technical skills makes the practice less intimidating than studying the work of a single master.
I got mine for $14, but prices fluctuate because it’s out of print. While you fish for a good price, I’ve included the list of artists in the photos below.
Please note that this book is a bit smaller than I expected, so I included a Lamy Safari for scale on a couple photos.
Now go and fly that pen!
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Silly skalds softly sang seven sympathetic sonatas stoutly skewering sixteen sadisistic satraps.
My rediscovery of fountain pens has resulted in a more purchases. The hedonic treadmill led from cheap flexible nibs to boutique inks and now better paper. Ironically, the photo below shows drawings with decades old ink, but on a fresh Rhodia pad. And yes, it’s a world of difference from the cheap Office Depot steno pads I’ve been using.
Along the way I’ve also discovered Pinterest after being nudged by some folks on Substack. It’s an amazing place for reference imagery (duh!). I had assumed that Instagram would be the place for such a library, but Meta has turned their place into a video service.
Here’s to new (and old) tools, toys, and platforms.
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Rational raccoons rashly rationed reimbursements remonstrating reckless rabbits rearing rough rascals.
On our way home from San Diego, we checked out the dying outlet mall at Primm. The adjoining casino is trying to revive it by making the cavernous space a huge mural gallery.
There were a couple claw machines at one end of the concourse. After watching Toy Story, they begged to try it out. I told them to not expect anything.
We had one dollar.
We got lucky.
This is a $200 drawing, the most expensive that I’ve made.
Late last year, I started sketching again, drawing the letters of the alphabet in my steno notepad. After drawing the “R” at the top, I tried again on decent paper, splashing an ink wash. It blew my mind that this could come from my hand.
It kept me drawing. Half a year later, I found Ashlyn Antsee’s series on fountain pens and bought a mix of nibs and new inks…and I plan on upgrading from the cheap Office Depot steno pads.
It’s a fuzzy line between art, consumerism, and privilege. I’m grateful that it’s no big deal for us to buy fancy drawing supplies.